Multinational financial corporations are losing out to fintech startups when it comes to attracting the best IT developers, says Morgan McKinley, a global professional services recruiter.
Financial services companies are throwing large sums of money into Fintech solutions such as payment systems. “We have seen many instances of mid-sized Fintech companies doubling their developer headcount in 2015 to keep pace with their clients’ interest. SMEs in this space are having less trouble finding recruits than some of the big multinationals – not so much because of salaries but because they offer stock options and non-financial benefits such as flexible working hours and a highly dynamic atmosphere,” it says. This trend will continue through 2016 as the UK, London in particular, invest in this sector.
Salary levels are increasing across the board but it is important to underline that in the most vibrant areas of IT, other benefits such as equity, flexible working hours and the ability to take on more responsibility and innovate can count for far more. Developers, in particular, are likely to take a job with a tech firm that has a positive buzz in preference to a more hierarchical and less innovative company, even if the latter is offering a significantly higher basic income.
Another trend is that many businesses seem to be doing their development with Agile and Scrum methodologies. Consequently the startups have very flat hierarchies, which present developers with exciting opportunities to take on responsibility early in their careers. However, to do well they need to develop a broad range of soft skills, such as the ability to understand business needs, to communicate and present effectively, and a high degree of self-motivation. The flip side is that such organisations have rather less need for Business Analysts and Project Managers, although there is so much activity at the moment that these professionals will also easily find employment.
Big Data and data analytics continue to grow with recruitment at all levels. Postgraduates in not only computer science but other quantitative subjects such as mathematics, engineering or even economics are in very high demand and are being attracted into analytics: they can typically double the earnings that they would get in academic research.
“At the more senior level we have seen increased recruitment of experts in all fields of IT risk and governance particularly in both the financial services and professional services industries.”